Nigerian born author Lesley Arimah has been declared the winner of The 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing for her short stories. Her short story titled Skinned won the Award. This win is coming against the backdrop of her being shortlisted for the Award on three previous occasions.
The Shortlist for this year came alongside Meron Hadero of Ethiopia for ‘The Wall’, Cherrie Kandie of Kenya for ‘Sew My Mouth’, Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti of Cameroon for ‘It Takes A Village Some Say’, and another Nigerian Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor for his work titled ‘All Our Lives’.
Arimah’s story was first published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (Issue 53). A statement by Caine Prize said, “‘Skinned’ envisions a society in which young girls are ceremonially ‘uncovered’ and must marry in order to regain the right to be clothed. It tells the story of Ejem, a young woman uncovered at the age of fifteen yet ‘unclaimed’ in adulthood, and her attempts to negotiate a rigidly stratified society following the breakdown of a protective friendship with the married Chidinma. With a wit, prescience, and wicked imagination, ‘Skinned’ is a bold and unsettling tale of bodily autonomy and womanhood, and the fault lines along which solidarities are formed and broken.”
In 2016, Arimah was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for her short story which became the title story of her collection of short stories, ‘What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky.’ In 2017, Arimah’s ‘Who Will Greet You At Home’ which was shortlisted for the prize was first published in the New Yorker.
The £10,000 prize is the most prestigious literary award for a short story on the continent. Dr. Peter Kimani, the Chair of Judges when announcing the prize said, “The winner of this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing is a unique retake of women’s struggle for inclusion in a society regulated by rituals.
According to a statement from the judges, Arimah’s Skinned defamiliarizes the familiar to topple social hierarchies, challenge traditions and envision new possibilities for women of the world. Using a sprightly diction, she invents a dystopian universe inhabited by unforgettable characters where friendship is tested, innocence is lost, and readers gain a new understanding of life.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
For startups looking for funding, Antler VC appears undeterred in its quest to invest in as many new global startups as possible. In fact, the VC has set a goal to generate a total of 100 to 150 new startups around the world by the end of the year.
Since the end of 2018, the startup generator and early-stage VC has invested €5.4 million into launching 44 global startups. After receiving 13,000 applications for its programme, Antler selected over 450 individuals to participate and become startup founders.
A Look At Antler Venture Capital Firm
Since launching its first program in Singapore in 2018, Antler has expanded to eight locations, including Stockholm, New York, London, Amsterdam, Oslo, Sydney, Nairobi, and Addis Ababa.
Two programmes take place annually in each city, and in the first phase, successful startups receive $100k to $150k in funding from Antler for a minority equity stake.
Startups then leverage Antler’s global platform to expand and easily scale into other markets.
Aspiring entrepreneurs can apply now to join cohorts in Amsterdam, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Singapore, Sydney, New York, and Nairobi.
“In just six months, Antler has enabled hundreds of entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds to create outstanding companies that are already positively impacting global and local economies with the next wave of technology,” said Magnus Grimeland, founder and CEO of Antler. “What can take a young startup months and years to accomplish in a new market we can accelerate significantly with our experienced team and advisers. We are well on our way to becoming the number one platform for entrepreneurs globally by becoming a truly global company ourselves, however, our journey is only just beginning.”
SkyQraft, a system providing affordable and safe infrastructure inspections using drones and AI to detect risks to power lines. These risks are increasing because of the impact of global warming which has resulted in more forest fires and power outages around the world.
Sampingan, a task-based workforce platform connecting organizations with freelance employees in Indonesia. The startup recently secured $500k from Golden Gate Ventures. Since it was founded, the company has on-boarded 20,000 agents across 140,000 projects. As well, in seven months, the company’s value has gone up ten times.
Soma Sketch, a health tech app that allows patients to communicate mental and physical health symptoms by writing and drawing how their body feels. The app will help identify risks, educate users on their health and generate anonymous data for research.
One of Antler’s key missions is to break the barriers to entrepreneurship. Antler’s founders range from Cambridge graduates to self-made geniuses because, rather than focusing on individuals’ backgrounds, the team looks for applicants with spike, inner-drive and grit.
With programmes operating across five continents, Antler has already attracted an incredibly diverse range of people, with founding teams comprising over 50 nationalities.
The recruitment process has also generated strong female representation, particularly in the first European programme where 64% of the entrepreneurs presenting at the local demo day in June 2019 were women.
“In just three months, the Antler program has enabled Shamba to put together a team working across three continents by providing invaluable advice and pre-seed investment to our company in its early stages,” said Michael Wallis-Brown, founder and CEO of Shamba, a startup that is fighting world hunger by optimizing farming in Africa. “We simply could not have launched our platform in Kenya without the support of the Antler teams in Stockholm and Nairobi, under the guidance of the Antler Global team. With this support, together with introductions to key investors both in Europe and Kenya, we are set to grow exponentially, working collaboratively with local farmers to solve inequality and hunger on the African continent.”
How To Be Part of Antler’s Funded Startup Network
Since launching its first program in Singapore in 2018, Antler has expanded to eight locations, including Stockholm, New York, London, Amsterdam, Oslo, Sydney, Nairobi, and Addis Ababa.
Antler’s successful startups now operate across 15 different industries including fintech, space-tech, robotics, and health tech
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
With the launch of Sunday of a continental free-trade zone in Africa, leaders of 54 nations have created on paper, which is regarded as the largest free trade zone in the world. Encompassing 1.3 billion people, and the potential to create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc.
After four years of talks, an agreement to form a 55-nation trade bloc was reached in March, paving the way for the launch earlier this week at the African Union Summit in Niger where Ghana was announced as the host of the trade zone’s future headquarters and discussions were held on how exactly the bloc will operate.
It is hoped that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – the largest since the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1994 – will help unlock Africa’s long-stymied economic potential by boosting intra-regional trade, strengthening supply chains and spreading expertise.
“The eyes of the world are turned towards Africa,” Egyptian President and African Union Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said at the summit’s opening ceremony.
“The success of the AfCFTA will be the real test to achieve the economic growth that will turn our people’s dream of welfare and quality of life into a reality,” he said.
Africa has much to catch up with: its intra-regional trade accounted for just 17% of exports in 2017 versus 59% in Asia and 69% in Europe, and Africa has missed out on the economic booms that other trade blocs have experienced in recent decades.
Economists say significant challenges remain, including poor road and rail links, large areas of unrest, excessive border bureaucracy and petty corruption that have held back growth and integration.
Members have committed to eliminating tariffs on most goods, which will increase trade in the region by 15-25% in the medium term, but this would more than double if these other issues were dealt with, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates.
The IMF in a May report described the free-trade zone as a potential “economic game changer” of the kind that has boosted growth in Europe and North America, but it added a note of caution. Reducing tariffs alone is not sufficient, it said.
Africa already has an alphabet soup of competing and overlapping trade zones – ECOWAS in the west, EAC in the east, SADC in the south and COMESA in the east and south.
But only the EAC, driven mainly by Kenya, has made significant progress toward a common market in goods and services.
These regional economic communities (REC) will continue to trade among themselves as they do now. The role of AfCFTA is to liberalize trade among those member states that are not currently in the same REC, said Trudi Hartzenberg, director at Tralac, a South Africa-based trade law organization.
The zone’s potential clout received a boost when Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, agreed to sign the agreement at the summit. Benin has also since agreed to join. Fifty-four of the continent’s 55 states have now signed up, but only about half of these have ratified. One obstacle in negotiations will be the countries’ conflicting motives.
For undiversified but relatively developed economies like Nigeria, which relies heavily on oil exports, the benefits of membership will likely be smaller than others, said John Ashbourne, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
Nigerian officials have expressed concern that the country could be flooded with low-priced goods, confounding efforts to encourage moribund local manufacturing and expand farming.
In contrast, South Africa’s manufacturers, which are among the most developed in Africa, could quickly expand outside their usual export markets and into West and North Africa, giving them an advantage over manufacturers from other countries, Ashbourne said.
The vast difference in countries’ economic heft is another complicating factor in negotiations. Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa account for over 50% of Africa’s cumulative GDP, while its six sovereign island nations represent about 1%.
“It will be important to address those disparities to ensure that special and differential treatments for the least developed countries are adopted and successfully implemented,” said Landry Signe, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative.
The summit also saw the launch of a digital payments system for the zone and instruments that will govern rules of origin and tariff concessions, as well as monitor and seek to eliminate non-tariff obstacles to trade, the African Union said.
While this is a good start, a lot is still left undone, or to be addressed.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Siemens and Plan International Germany have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on future humanitarian projects to assist marginalized populations across Africa, with initial emphasis on Sudan, specifically displaced communities affected by conflict in neighboring South Sudan; The partnership will start by addressing the educational and infrastructure needs of communities in the White Nile state, including hybrid solar solutions in areas where access to decentralized energy is urgently required to enable sustainable development; Plan International is a child-centered community development organization that assists the most vulnerable in more than 50 countries, including Sudan
Siemens has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Plan International Germany that will see the two organizations working together to provide education, aid, and infrastructure to marginalized communities in Africa. The initial focus is on remote regions in Sudan, where Siemens and Plan International will provide aid in the educational and training sector, starting in White Nile state. Plan International is a child-centered organization that aligns with Siemens’ goal to support sustainable growth in the region.
With this agreement, Siemens further solidifies its commitment to significant humanitarian efforts in Sudan to address basic human needs and essential infrastructure. Siemens follows a clear business-to-society model in all countries and communities where it operates, and the goal is to directly impact the quality of life of the citizens of Sudan. Siemens and Plan International will focus on the renovation and modernization of 2 schools in the White Nile region incorporating a hybrid electrification solution for the schools and surrounding community.
According to 2018 data collected by Plan International, Sudan continues to receive ongoing significant influxes of refugees into areas such as the White Nile State. The majority of refugees are women and children (88%), who arrive in poor health after traveling many days to reach Sudan, often by foot, and who are in urgent need of protection, nutrition, shelter, and health support.
There are over 170,000 refugees living across 8 camps in White Nile. Over-congestion remains a serious concern, with all camps currently hosting populations beyond initial capacity.
According to Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa, “This area is in desperate need of sustainable solutions. While short-term aid is welcome and much needed, our aim is to provide self-sustaining solutions in education, skills development, and training, as well as a hybrid energy solution to state, benefit the marginalized populations in areas struggling to keep up with the influx of refugees.”
As a technology company with a footprint across Africa, Siemens has a keen understanding of the impact energy infrastructure has in marginalized areas. Access to electricity is the catalyst that enables access to education, food security, healthcare, and sustainable growth.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Fans are choosing not to watch live football events, and instead are opting in increasing numbers for the ‘intimacy’ of their crystal clear digital flat TV screens, or not all
At the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, the visual imagery of almost empty stadiums is a powerful narrative. But not the kind that African sports, African football, or corporate sponsors deserve.
The empty seat syndrome suggests that football fans are voting with their feet, or better still with their backsides. Fans are choosing not to watch live football events, and instead are opting in increasing numbers for the ‘intimacy’ of their crystal clear digital flat TV screens, or not all.
Before Egypt’s stunning 0-1 loss to South Africa in the round of 16, the host country was the only team able to attract 70,000 fans. Other than when Mo Salah and the Pharaohs have been on the field, most stadia across Egypt have at best attracted an average of 5,000 to 7,000 fans.
Official broadcast camera crews have done a creative job minimizing the visual gaps of empty seats. But wide camera angles reveal the obvious … a lack of attendance and public enthusiasm, in spite of the presence of some of the biggest names in world football on the field.
In European football leagues, where many of the stars in Egypt ply their trade, fans pay mega bucks to see the likes of John Mikel Obi, Ahmed Musa, Sadio Mane, Ryahd Mahrez, Nicolas Pépé, Wilfred, Zaha, and Kalidou Koulibaly.
Which is why the empty seats in Egypt are both stunning.
Admittedly, Egypt bailed CAF out and should receive well-deserved credit for coming to the rescue and hosting the African Cup of Nations, with barely 6 months notice, when the original hosts were sanctioned due to shoddy preparations.
Nevertheless, the lack of attendance in Egypt speaks volumes high ticket costs; the timing of matches bang in the middle of work days; the difficulties faced by national team supporters in obtaining entry visas to Egypt; and challenges with the Confederation of African Football’s complicated online ticket purchasing system.
It should not be so. This, after all, is the most important event in Africa’s sports calendar. At least, it used to be before England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, and Germany’s Bundesliga captured our collective imaginations.
The end result is that where once 30,000 to 70,000 fans a week watched highly competitive domestic football leagues across Africa, the empty seat syndrome has been the norm for almost two decades. It is not unusual to have less than a thousand fans in a stadium that seats 30,000.
The lack of fan attendance has obvious economic and financial implications across the sports value chain for team owners, sports federations and confederations, players, sponsors, advertising and marketing agencies, merchandisers, vendors, and local communities who once counted on fan attendance to boost fledgling economies.
What’s responsible for the increasing slide in fan attendance?
1. Poor facilities
2. High ticket costs
3. A lack of reliable transportation to and from venues. As well as sufficient and secure parking.
4. Increasingly crude behavior and violence at event locations.
5. Technology. Mobile phones and Apps that carry events live as well as a plethora of entertainment alternatives. In other words, once big events are no longer the main gigs in town.
So, what can be done to reverse the trend? Here are 5 quick suggestions.
1. It can no longer be business as usual. Africa must run sports as a professional business. This includes the right infrastructure, training facilities, attractive pay scales for professional athletes who now consider anything less than a European league appearance, a professional failure.
Regrettably, as with Africa’s overall propensity to simply export raw materials instead of adding value to what we produce, we are doing the same with football and many other sports. Africa has a tremendous abundance of potential talent that for the most part (with the exception of South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia) we add little or no value to. Instead, millions of genetically blessed athletes are simply waiting or begging to be ‘found’ on the cheap by European and American sports teams. Why? Simply because we fail to see diamonds in the rough and because we are unable to add value to the potential of what for now seems to be rough stones.
2. Modern and professionally maintained facilities: In sizzling hot Africa, we must invest in covered stadia. When I can sit in front of my big screen TV in my air-conditioned living room, why would I want to subject myself to temperatures that I swear have gone up a number of notches in recent years?
3. Sport is a spectacle. This includes everything including pre-event and half time entertainment to keep fans with short attention spans upbeat and engaged.
4. Give back to the fans: Essentially, engagement in the 21st century must change. Its time to give something back to fans rather than fleecing them at every opportunity with sub-standard services and products. It would seem to me that sports teams could offer something as simple as raffle draws that reward fans with extra game tickets, signed player jerseys, visits with select players, or products from local sponsors. Professional marketing firms can come up with an endless list.
5. Make sports big and make it a win-win proposition.
Real Madrid F.C. and Barcelona F.C. for example, are not owned by a few rich individuals. Instead, they are owned and supported by thousands of shareholders known as ‘socios.’ Across Africa, it’s time to change the numbers game – in ownership, money, and attendance – by giving fans a seat at the table.
These are just a few quick ideas. However, the running of sports in general and football in particular as a business and a brand proposition will require honest analysis, political and financial will, and a collective approach.
It must be if Africa is to unlock potential and turn millions into billions.
Dr. Victor Oladokun is the Director of Communication and External Relations at the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org).
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The president of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina joined continental leaders in Niger for an African Union summit which saw the official launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement – the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization.
The agreement, ratified in April, will cover a market of 1.2 billion people and an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion, across all 55 member States of the African Union.
The Bank has been central in shaping the AfCFTA agreement, setting its strategy and format and approving a $4.8 million grant to the AU for the establishing of the Secretariat and to accelerate its roll out. Nigeria made history at the summit by becoming the 54th African country to sign up.
Commending all the parties involved for bringing this historic agreement to fruition, President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou said: “The time has come to translate words into actions. The continent has waited for far too long, and we are glad this historic moment for the people of Africa is being witnessed in Niger.”
His comments were echoed by AU President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and AU Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat who both stressed the need to celebrate the strides the continent has made.
“An old dream has come true. The founding fathers must be proud,” said Faki.
Whilst in Niamey, Adesina also participated in a high-level panel on combatting child marriage, organized on the sidelines of the summit by the First Ladies of West African Economic Community states and Niger’s first lady Dr. Lala Malika Mahamadou Issoufou.
The panel themed: Combatting child marriage and promoting girls’ education and retention in schools, heard testimonies from young girls as well as from Niger’s traditional chiefs, who committed to support the recommendations of the meeting.
“It is totally unacceptable that in Africa some people would block the future of girls. Fundamentally, we have to protect girls, help them achieve and perform.” Adesina said.
Highlighting the need to urgently address “this plague which jeopardizes the future of girls in Africa,” Adesina urged participants to prioritize the inclusion of women. “Women are the backbone of the African economy and of the African communities,” Adesina stated.
President Issoufou also reaffirmed his government’s commitment to supporting the First ladies.
“Keeping girls in school is one of the best ways to end child marriage. Like men, an educated girl will contribute to her community’s transformation,” the President said.
Rounding off the conversation Niger’s First Lady described the issue as a “critical priority.”
“It is not just a West Africa issue, but an issue for the entire region. So all of us must come together – public, non-governmental institutions, religious leaders, communities, families, and schools – for a sustained multi-stakeholder approach to combat early marriage and promote girls’ education,” Malika Mahamadou Issoufou concluded.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
South African crypto-based startup Wala has come to its end. The startup’s premises, after 4 years of being in operation, are no longer open for business. Founded in 2015, Wala initially provided access to transactional banking, remittances, loans, and insurance, working with specialist providers to offer a full suite of financial services.
However, the startup became crypto-focused in 2017 with the launch of utility crypto-token Dala, which Wala hoped would support the operationalization and further development of scalable, blockchain-enabled financial platforms for emerging markets. It did this by raising funding from Newtown Partners and then bagged US$1.2 million in addition through a token sale.
Here are the key reasons why the startup closed down
Funding
Initially, Wala was coasting home clean. The startup which won the Zambezi Prize late last year, secured over 150,000 users, mainly residing in Uganda, within months, but founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Tricia Martinez said it soon ran into problems.
“We had little funding and limited resources while tackling a massive global problem. With over 150,000 Dala wallets and more and more partners wanting to work with us we had a lot on our plate with limited resources,” said Martinez.
However, when it became time to fundraise again, Wala was not successful, in spite of its team believing its rapid growth would make it attractive to investors.
“I began fundraising at the start of crypto winter, which certainly didn’t help. For whatever reason, not many investors wanted to back a crypto company, let alone a startup focused on African markets,” Martinez said.
“For eight months I traveled across the globe, pitching investors in blockchain, fintech, impact, African-focused… I met and engaged with over 100 investors, and despite our early growth numbers, we couldn’t secure the necessary financial support we needed to continue growing and operating.”
Wala began cutting back, turning off deposits and laying off most of its team, but on June 24 it turned off its app entirely.
Martinez also said activities of scammers and infrequency of service supply from the startup’s partner networks also contributed to the downfall of the startup.
“Rewards attracted scammers or people who figured out how to take advantage of a rewards system. This led us to change our rewards model multiple times and have to remove users who were abusing our system,” she said.
“The biggest problem we ran into was infrastructure. Our partners’ systems upwould regularly turn off due to internet problems or their own poor infrastructure, which meant our users were unable to transact, which was the biggest use case for Dala. This crushed our user engagement and most importantly trust in our system. It also forced us to expand the scope for Dala. We had to build even more infrastructure than we anticipated at the start,’’ she said.
A Ruined and Devastated Startup
The startup expressed shock over this reality.
“Our team was devastated to say the least and our users were upset. We provided a free financial payments system to consumers that solved a huge problem for them, but we didn’t have the funding to scale operations and solve the infrastructure problems that existed in these markets,” said Martinez.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
Zambian startup, Rent to Own (RTO) is determined to achieve its goal of providing productive-use assets to rural SMEs in Zambia. The startup has just raised a EURO 1 Mn (USD 1,121,849) in a new round of funding from the Seed Capital and Business Development facility of the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF).
DGGF, managed by Triple Jump BV is a fund of funds investment initiative from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs that invests in funds and financial intermediaries that provide capital to SMEs.
Through its seed investment in RTO, DGGF will help support rural SMEs to improve livelihoods and develop sustainable income sources.
According to an official disclosure, Rent To Own engaged Open Capital Advisors, a management consulting and financial advisory firm based in Africa, to provide investment-readiness and transaction advisory support for this deal.
Own To Rent intends to use the funds primarily as working capital to double the company’s portfolio for rural Zambian entrepreneurs.
Building upon convertible notes, Rent To Own provides high-impact assets to rural entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers in Zambia.
Offering a unique “all-in-one” package of uncollateralized financing, delivery, installation, and equipment training, the startup empowers its clients to grow their businesses and improve their quality of life. RTO’s flexible, tech-enabled platform also provides a route-to-market for equipment suppliers and supports the rapid adoption of innovative assets, such as solar-powered irrigation pumps.
“We are extremely excited by the opportunity provided by DGGF to continue to focus on this mission and rapidly grow our loan book despite the harsh economic conditions we are currently experiencing in Zambia”, says Jeffrey Scheidegger, CEO.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
Barring any last minute changes, Airtel Africa Plc is now set to list its shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange today, Tuesday 9th July 2019. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has officially disclosed that the postponed Airtel Africa listing on its platform has been rescheduled for Tuesday, July 9th, 2019.
This Listing At A Glance
Ahead of its secondary listing on the NSE, Airtel Africa, at the weekend, unveiled plans to distribute 80 percent of its free cash flow as dividend to shareholders.
The telecom company had earlier announced the postponement of the much-expected shares listing slated for Friday, July 5, 2019.
It was expected to conduct cross-border secondary listing of 3,758,151,504 ordinary shares of Airtel Africa Plc on the NSE after its London Stock Exchange (LSE), primarily listing at an offer price of 80 pence per ordinary share.
A secondary listing is when securities, already listed on a primary exchange, are subsequently listed on other securities exchanges, with the Issuer not subjected to the full requirements applicable to listing on the other securities exchange(s) at which it seeks a secondary listing.
The telecoms giant said the postponed listing was to ensure that the company meets all the post NSE approval pre-requisites for listing on the exchange.
A Breakdown Of Facts
Airtel Africa is made up of Airtel Chad; Airtel DRC; Airtel Gabon; AirtelTigo Ghana; Airtel Kenya; Airtel Madagascar; Airtel Malawi; Airtel Niger; Airtel Nigeria; Airtel Congo; Airtel Rwanda; Airtel Seychelles; Airtel Tanzania; Airtel Uganda; Airtel Zambia);
The company had a net profit of $83mn in the fourth quarter of the 2018–19 year to March, driven by its Airtel Money platform, after a loss of $49mn in the year-earlier quarter.
Investors including Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel, SoftBank and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) have invested $1.45b in Airtel Africa through primary equity issuance, with the proceeds being used to reduce debt.
India’s Bharti Airtel established its presence in Africa by buying Kuwait-based Zain’s Africa operations for $10.7 billion in 2010. The company has grown to become Africa’s second-largest telecoms company, with over 94 million customers, and is in the top two carriers in most of the countries where it operates.
According to Ovum’s Africa Digital Outlook 2019, mobile revenue in Africa will increase from $54.9b in 2017 to $68b in 2022. Non-SMS mobile data revenue — from mobile broadband access and mobile digital services — is expected to more than double to $32.1bn over that period.
Points To Have In Mind When Investing In Stocks of Companies
Own at least 10–30 different stocks, preferably in different industries: Don’t put all your money in one company/mutual fund/industry and invest in a wide variety of them.
Invest in established leaders in the industry, preferably companies in the top 25% or 30%: Choose great and stable companies. Remember: We’re investing in businesses, not gambling on racehorses.
The Company you’re buying should have a Long, Unbroken Record of Dividend Payments: If a company gives good dividends to their stockholders, it means it has actual earnings to pay it.
Choose companies with a 7-year Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio of Less than 25 (and less than 20 in the past 12 months): Choose good companies with a moderately low P/E Ratio (less than 25).
NB: These points were postulated by Benjamin Graham, author of the classic “The Intelligent Investor
Additionally,
Set a maximum limit of the amount you can invest in companies.
Invest in companies that are making profit or has all the metrics to make profit.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
At only 26, William Elong has already written his name in the book of African geniuses by launching the first drone made in Cameroon. William Elong created this feat by launching the first civilian drone service made in Cameroon.
The promoter of the Cameroonian startup Will & Brothers and Algo Drone, whose holding company is based in Germany, wants to challenge the giants of the sector in the international sky. To achieve this, the young entrepreneur who graduated in strategy and economic intelligence from the Paris School of War announced last January that the startup had raised of 2 million euros, a little over 1.3 billion CFA francs in funding.
No Degree In Robotics
William Elong was categorical when he spoke with the French online magazine, Sputnik on the sidelines of the week digital innovation in Yaoundé recently, that he had no previous background in robotics.
“I have absolutely no degree in robotics or embedded system,’’ he said. ‘‘I did business studies instead. However, I worked for companies in the security sector for a few years: Nexter (a manufacturer of armored vehicles) where I was an economic intelligence consultant and Thales Cameroon that offers cyber security services. It is through these field experiences in the field of security that I understood what were the issues related to the issue of drones and the management of satellite data; which allowed me to start my own business.
When it comes to evoking his passion for robotics, William Elong said that:
“It’s like asking someone who loves the piano where his passion for the piano comes from. Sincerely, I do not know. The environment maybe, because I had a lot of chances to be interested very early in everything related to robotics. It was done alone. I would say its innate.“
The well-nourished passion allowed Elong to embark on entrepreneurship as early as 2015. To make his ambition happen, he created Will & Brothers, a startup specialized in economic intelligence and specialized technological innovation; then Drone Africa to realize his dream of developing drones 100% Cameroonian.
“Apart from the Startup Will and Brothers, there is another named Algo Drone which was originally called Drone Africa. It has become a company present in several countries. So we set up an office in Germany, which allowed us to reach Europe and not just focus on Africa, because we think the global market is large, “he said.
Thanks to the creation of these two structures, William Elong finally realized his dream of developing the Drone Africa app: launching the first civilian drone service in Cameroon. This innovation earned him a place as one of the most formidable African geniuses. In 2016, he was among the top 30 most promising young African entrepreneurs, in a ranking published by the famous American magazine Forbes.
“Drone Africa is a team work made up of young engineers recruited from some of the Faculties of Industrial Engineering in Douala and others in Yaounde. It is gets a lot of self-learning through lessons available on Youtube and Open Source. From this workforce and our skills, we have embarked on a production phase. We also knew a lot of failures, but we got up and today our service offer is functional, “he said.
The drone surveillance service offered by William Elong is increasingly adopted in various sectors of activity in Cameroon, particularly in agriculture, tourism, communication, meteorology, defense or mapping.
“More than 80% of our activity is carried out with institutional actors. For example, farmers who want to do mapping on several hectares with the drone. Others solicit us for the promotion of tourist sites. We have covered sites of some stages of the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon. I can mention the Olembe stadium, which we shot during the construction. We also have clients in Congo or Senegal. In Africa the solicitations are going well, “he said.
Concerning the components of his devices, the promoter however specified that all the parts are not manufactured in Cameroon.
“I am often asked if the components of my drones are made in Cameroon. No, of course. Even when you buy your phone made in France all components are not manufactured in France. We have components that come from different suppliers around the world and sometimes assembly is done in Cameroon. The important point is the know-how that we sell to our customers, “he reassured.
”The size of the market and the scale of the needs in Africa are elements that have attracted our first funders”
But William Elong is also an ace of crowdfunding. To succeed in these different challenges, Will & Brothers was able to mobilize $ 200,000 from various investors at the launch of his project. In January 2019, the young entrepreneur managed to raise 2 million euros (1.3 billion CFA francs) of funds announced in early 2018. Funds that come mainly from foreign investors even if William would have liked more involvement of Cameroonian partners
“I submitted my project to investment funds that could be interested in our sector of activity. It works pretty well. Unfortunately, we have very few local investors. Too bad. The size of the market and the scale of the needs in Africa are elements that have attracted our first funders and still attracting today, “he told Sputnik
Among the difficulties encountered by the young entrepreneur in the development of his drone and artificial intelligence services is the newness of this technology in Cameroon.
“Given that we are specialized in a high-tech sector like artificial intelligence and drones, the general public has a hard time really understanding what we are doing. To fight against this basic incomprehension, we organize information and awareness workshops to demystify the subject. Because of the technical complexity, we are often faced with misinformation. Each time, we have to go back over certain points to better enlighten them and make them understand,’’he said.
With this local experience, William Elong is now eyeing the international sky.
“We are actively preparing for the conquest of the international market with our drones. However, there are other areas of activity that we are aiming to explore. I can speak in particular about Finetech, it is an area that interests us particularly, cybersecurity especially. Because there is only one step between drones, data transmission and cybersecurity issues, “he said.
Besides his many activities, this geek also works to share his experience with young people in Cameroon.
“We accompany young people to encourage them to start their own businesses. In this sense we have set up an association called “Cameroon Flying Lab”, an association that promotes robotics among young people through actions in schools, universities and others. I can also talk about the “Phoenix Lab” a non-profit organization based in Douala that offers support to young entrepreneurs who are looking for capital, “he said.
As he continues his rise to conquer the international market, William Elong firmly believes that artificial intelligence can contribute to the digital transformation of Africa and its development.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
